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Steam rose from the crack under the door. The room smelled heavily of some sort of flower he couldn’t quite place. Twilight hesitated before pushing the door open, he double checked to make sure the towel around his waist was secure and not revealing anything it shouldn’t be. He hadn’t been quite this exposed around his new companions before.
Being self conscious wasn’t in his nature. Back home, he was often covered in hay and some form of animal fur or droppings after a long day of work. His hair was often a tangled mess of curls. Freckles and scars adorned his skin, he never really had it in his mind to care about them. But now his thoughts raced with worry. Would he be considered undesirable? He knew how city folk often looked down on more rural people.
He grabbed a second towel and draped it over his shoulders before opening the door. Steam swirled around him and immediately cleared his sinuses. The tiles on the floor made a beautiful mural of an underwater scene, the fresco on the walls depicted a beach leading into a field of tropical flowers. He’d never seen a room like this before, there was a shallow pool in the center filled to the brim with bubbles.
Eras was sitting in the pool with his arms resting on the tile floor, the bubbles reached just below his chest. No one else was in the pool, despite the other leaders having been invited for a relaxing evening. Twilight swallowed. That meant it would be just the two of them. Alone.
“Are Kiri and Sky going to join us?” Twilight asked as he approached the pool.
Eras looked at him quizzically and let out a laugh.
“Kiri hates me and I’m pretty sure Sky thinks I’ll bite him if I get too close,” Eras explained, not harshly, but with an amused smile.
The second part was without a doubt true. Eras was an intimidating and intense man. There was plenty of softness under that gruff exterior, Twilight just knew where to look. It wasn’t Sky’s fault that Eras was taller and stockier than him. He could probably snap Sky like a twig with those stupidly strong arms. Or destroy him in one step with those large thighs. Or- wait, no. No no no. This wasn’t the point. Twilight quickly got a hold of himself.
“I’m sure Kiri doesn’t hate you, he just needs time and space.”
“Mhmm. And Sky?” Eras asked, still with a smile.
“Look, I’m just sayin’, it would be pretty funny if you pretend to bite ‘im.”
“I’ll leave that one to you, dog boy.”
Twilight huffed and crossed his arms. He wasn’t a dog boy. Well, not most of the time anyway.
“You know,” Eras started and tilted his head slightly, “if I didn’t know you better, I would say you’re stalling.”
“Pardon?”
“Is there a reason you aren’t in the pool yet?”
Twilight stared at the pool. In all honesty, he wasn’t expecting the bathhouse to be a literal bath. He thought maybe it was just something deep enough to dip their feet into.
“Um, I-” Twilight stuttered and rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t have any swim shorts.”
“Neither do I.”
“You’re in there with nothin’ on?” Twilight balked and averted his eyes from the water, even though everything below the bubbles was obscured. Eras laughed, Twilight felt heat rising to his cheeks.
“Never been to a bathhouse?” Eras asked once he stopped laughing.
“Can’t say I have, nothing like this at least.”
“You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to. But it does wonders for aches and pains.”
Twilight considered him for a moment. A hot bath did sound rather pleasant. Besides, there was no reason to be embarrassed, Eras was his… really good friend? Boyfriend? Partner? He didn’t know actually, it wasn’t something that was ever brought up. Maybe they’d talk about it sometime later, there were more pressing matters at hand. Like getting into the pool.
“I’m comin’ in,” Twilight announced and tossed the towel around his shoulders aside, “no peekin’.”
Eras looked at him with an ‘are you serious’ expression, and then he dramatically used one of his arms to cover his eyes. Twilight unraveled the towel around his waist and set it on the pool’s edge. He carefully stepped into the pool and sat on a bench. The hot water felt fantastic, he leaned back and let out a pleased sigh. He could fall asleep here if he wasn’t careful.
“Are you decent?” Eras asked, still with his arm covering his eyes.
“I’m good, thanks,” Twilight replied and draped his arms along the pool edge, “do you visit these bathhouses a lot? This is nice.”
“I’ll go with Impa and Zelda once in a while,” Eras replied, setting his arm down in the water.
“I take it you’re close with your Zelda then?”
“I would hope so,” Eras said with a hearty laugh, “we are courting, after all.”
“You what?” Twilight stared at him, waiting for an explanation. Maybe it was some sort of joke he wasn’t in on yet.
“It’s a bit complicated,” Eras started, still with a smile, “publically, I am to become the prince consort. Privately, we are nothing more than close friends.”
In all honesty, Twilight didn’t know what to make of that.
“So you’re a noble? Will I have to start calling you Your Highness?”
“Gods no,” Eras exclaimed, his smile dropped for a moment but it returned quickly, “I am but a humble soldier. Besides, neither of us intends to get married to each other.”
“Then why are you pretending, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I don’t mind. The council refused to coronate her unless she showed some sort of interest in continuing her bloodline. We were both getting unwanted suitors, so she came up with the idea to court. She’s been together with Impa and the council is none the wiser.”
Twilight took a moment to appreciate the fact that his Hyrule was nothing like Eras’. Suitors certainly weren’t at his doorstep, then again, most people didn’t know what the hero looked like. He turned down every offer to attend a banquet or ball in his honor. His Zelda was nice enough, from what he remembered, he’d only met her a handful of times. The thought of courting her as an elaborate ruse sounded exhausting, but it sounded like Eras was at least close with his Zelda.
“Did you ever date anyone else while courting Zelda?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious.
“Not really. I had a few flings during the war…” Eras trailed off, he looked away and stared intently at one of the murals, “don’t laugh, but I’ve never really dated anyone.”
A few things suddenly made sense with that revelation.
“Why would I laugh about that?”
“Most people in their thirties have dated someone before,” Eras replied and looked at him. Not with worry or contempt, he seemed fairly relaxed.
“Eh, who cares,” Twilight said with a lazy wave of his hand, “sounds like you were busy with other stuff.”
“That’s for sure,” Eras chuckled, “what about you?”
It was a bit complicated. He still wasn’t sure what he had with Midna. Did he love her? Did he never want to see her again? He shoved those thoughts away to deal with for another time.
“I dated my childhood best friend for a while. Ilia’s great, we’re still close, we just mutually decided we were better as friends. Then there was Shad. I still feel bad about that, he was more of a rebound after my quest ended. We still talk, but not as much as we used to.”
Eras hummed thoughtfully in response.
The bubbles in the water started to recede, they’d been in here for a fair bit of time. Twilight didn’t want to leave quite yet, it was too relaxing. The occasional chat while resting in hot water was sure to cure all ailments.
He watched as Eras stretched his arms and readjusted himself. Twilight had seen the burn mark that wrapped around Eras’ arm before, he didn’t realize it continued down his side. Then again, he’d never seen the captain this undressed before.
“It keeps going,” Eras said with a sly smile when he noticed Twilight’s gaze.
“What,” Twilight replied dumbly.
“Got all the way to my thigh. Luckily for you, it didn’t burn anything important off.”
Twilight blinked. Then he processed the words.
“Shuddup!” He barked a laugh and splashed water at the captain. He did not expect Eras to be capable of being so crass. Eras retaliated by splashing water at him.
Once they both got the splashing out of their systems, they settled down and returned to relaxing.
“I have a confession to make,” Eras said after a few moments of comfortable silence, Twilight looked at him curiously, “I invited Sky and Kiri as a formality, I knew they wouldn’t show.”
“Was this some elaborate ruse to have me alone in a bathhouse?” Twilight teased lightly.
“It was. I am not usually comfortable with being this… exposed. I wanted to see how this went.”
Twilight understood, he nodded and smiled.
“I hope it’s well for you,” Twilight said. He was happy with this trust building exercise, anything that involved being completely relaxed was a win in his books.
“It is. I appreciate your patience with me.”
“Don’t even worry about it. I think coming here more often would be nice, if you want to.”
“I would love that.”
“Perfect,” Twilight announced and grinned, “maybe next time I’ll let ya peek.”
It was Eras’ turn to splash him with water. They eventually settled down and enjoyed the rest of their time in the bathhouse.